How do I get good ?

[ᏫᏋᏒᎽ ₍^. .^₎⟆]

Started the game few days ago. Beat Mom quickly but now I'm stuck on Mom's Heart. I reached the fight only 2 times. First time i got destroyed, second one I got destroyed too but it took longer. But what I struggle with the most is reaching there in the first place.

Sometimes I've really good runs that ends in a gank on a small bridge with a bazillion ennemies jumping to me. Sometimes I just get the most useless items possible, or explore entire floors without finding a key or bombs. And when I do get those, nothing to unlock with those.

I feel like I stopped making any progress.

I'm playing without dlcs yet.

[Tetramouse]

If you are struggling with health Magdalene is nice with her yum heart active. Also I would just recommend playing more. And if you want dlcs at some point buy them all at once.

[Nazemec]

Originally posted by Oery:

I reached the fight only 2 times. First time i got destroyed, second one I got destroyed too but it took longer.

Progress!

Practice is everything. Focus on the monsters, take it slow at first, take the time to learn.
The more you observe the monsters, the more you'll understand how they move and attack.
The more you understand them, the easier it gets to kill them efficiently and avoid getting hit.
The less hits you get, the longer you can survive.

Isaac can be a hard game on new players, hitting a wall when facing new content is to be expected. And you'll hit a lot of walls the further you go, so embrace it!
According to your profile you played about 15 hours, reaching the Heart now and then at that time doesn't sound bad to me.

Originally posted by Oery:

I'm playing without dlcs yet.

Out of curiosity, any particular reason?
If you know you like the game you should get all expansions as soon as possible to benefit from all rebalances the game got with expansions (and you won't have to de-learn a bunch of now-obsolete reflexes). Most of the harder content has to be unlocked, the game won't just shove it in your face if you're on a new-ish save file.
And since you've already unlocked the Womb, you can use mods without preventing unlocks. A very useful one is External Item Descriptions, it details the effects of all items you see during the run (although if you prefer to play the "discover effects myself" game, that's up to you).
(Reminder: workshop mods can only be used on Afterbirth+ and Repentance.)

[ᏫᏋᏒᎽ ₍^. .^₎⟆]

Well, I managed to beat her the run right after writing this, but to be fair I was insanely lucky, I quickly ended up with a billion random pets + some weapon which I don't recall the name but was basically a missile I had to move with my other keys. I just let it afk on the mom's heart and it died quickly. Also found the boss rush right before and did it.

Originally posted by Nazemec:

The more you observe the monsters, the more you'll understand how they move and attack.
The more you understand them, the easier it gets to kill them efficiently and avoid getting hit.

I mostly struggle with the mobs that zooms around and bounce 50 times on each wall, like the poop dudes.

Originally posted by Nazemec:

Out of curiosity, any particular reason?

I like having the same experience as the original players first then play with DLCs. If it's this important I might buy them too.

[Nazemec]

Originally posted by Oery:

Originally posted by Nazemec:

Out of curiosity, any particular reason?

I like having the same experience as the original players first then play with DLCs. If it's this important I might buy them too.

Well, if you're willing to trust the experience of someone who went through the releases one by one: don't. Play the full version as soon as you can.

[ᏫᏋᏒᎽ ₍^. .^₎⟆]

Aight, I'll trust you on that. I'll buy them.

[Cha0zb0rn]

Rebirth is the easiest version. It'll only get more difficult from there. With each update the itempool gets diluted with more crap items. Some of the added items certainly are very strong, but most arent. There is a strategy that is very cheese but widely used: reseting(hold R) the run until you get a good (damage boosting) item in your first room. can be tedious but gets you wins reliably.

Also rebirth azrael is extremely strong und not difficult to unlock. unlock him first and you can unlock a lot of stuff easily.

Also get used to hunt for hidden rooms. 1 is usually near the boss room and another one usually has at least 2 adjecent rooms. You'll get a hang of it eventually. most of the time they are crap but sometimes they have good items.

Also start to bomb tinted rocks. They usually have a bigger cross on them. they hold grey hearts frequently and sometimes items. Google for their sprites so you know what to look for.

Angel/devil rooms are a thing as well. they appear after bosses if you beat the stage without taking red heart damage. The items in these rooms are usually strong. some are extremely strong but risky because they cost red heart containers. angel rooms appear if you unlock 3 devil rooms but dont buy from them if i remember correctly. They hold different items than devil rooms but the items are free and about as strong on average.

[ᏫᏋᏒᎽ ₍^. .^₎⟆]

Originally posted by Cha0zb0rn:

Rebirth is the easiest version. It'll only get more difficult from there.

I don't know if I was lucky or not but my first run on rep was by far the easiest run I ever had. I had such high damages, attack speed and health it was ridiculous. Maybe it's just the item descriptions, even though I used to check items on the wiki, who knows. I ended up demolishing mom's heart really quickly.

Thanks for the tips. I knew about them already but i appreciate the effort.

[Cha0zb0rn]

you can always get lucky. But in rebirth it was easier to gett luck than it is in rep

[Kippetje94]

Originally posted by Cha0zb0rn:

you can always get lucky. But in rebirth it was easier to gett luck than it is in rep

all earlier dlcs are so much more broken tbh (e.g. diplopia on steam sale + restock -> already possible on AB)